The Case Of The Disappearing Tapes

In the midst of the discussion about whether a special prosecutor should be appointed to deal with the Bush torture legacy, commentators tend to forget that there are already two special prosecutors looking into Bush-era criminality who were appointed by former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey. One of them is John Durham, a career prosecutor from New England who handled a high-profile mob investigation in Boston as well as the inquiry that took down Governor John G. Rowland in Connecticut. He was appointed to look into the mysterious disappearance of some 92 tapes of high-value detainees in CIA custody. Federal prosecutors in Virginia told a court that they didn’t exist; they later claimed to have been misled by the CIA. Because court orders had been issued to turn over the tapes, obstruction of justice may be inferred from their destruction.